ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Wednesday extended former prime minister Imran Khan’s judicial remand until Sept. 13 to investigate him on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer said.
A special court held the proceedings at Attock Jail, where Khan is serving a three-year prison sentence in a separate corruption case after being found guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his term as prime minister from 2018-22.
The Islamabad High Court suspended that sentence on Tuesday and allowed Khan to be released on bail, but he was barred from leaving jail as he was still under remand in the official secrets, or cipher case, in which Khan is accused of making public the contents of a confidential cable sent by Pakistan's ambassador to the United States and using it for political gains.
A special court judge traveled to Attock Jail for an in-camera hearing of the case on Wednesday after the interior ministry raised “security concerns” surrounding Khan’s trial and the law ministry sanctioned that legal proceedings take place in the prison.
“The special court granted Imran Khan’s fourteen-day judicial remand in the case until Sept.13 after hearing our initial arguments in the case,” advocate Intazar Hussain Panjutha, a member of Khan’s legal team, told Arab News after the hearing.
“We had a detailed meeting with Imran Khan to discuss the cipher case where he categorically told us that he neither violated any law nor compromised national interest by telling the public about the document.”
Panjutha said Khan’s legal team had filed three separate applications in the special court, including seeking the cancellation of the government’s order for a prison trial and a request for ex-PM’s bail in the cipher case.
Multiple cases have been lodged against the 70-year-old former national cricket captain since he lost the premiership in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April last year.
“Khan was upbeat and in high spirits because he knows this is a frivolous case against him like many others,” Panjutha said about the legal team’s meeting with the politician.
Khan denies wrongdoing in all the cases against him, calling them politically motivated. His party and supporters widely believe their leader is being punished for challenging the military's dominant influence in Pakistan's politics, and that legal cases are being used to keep him out of a national election that is due later this year, but could be delayed till early 2024. The military denies it interferes in political affairs.
The cipher case against Khan and some of his top aides was registered earlier this month under the Official Secrets Act of 1923 and relates to an alleged diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad that Khan has said proved a US conspiracy to topple his government. Washington has denied being involved in any such conspiracy.
A complaint lodged against the former prime minister with the Federal Investigation Agency on August 15 says he was “involved in the communication of information contained in [the] secret classified document ... to unauthorized persons (ie public at large).”
Advocate Panjutha, who is representing Khan in the case, said the federal cabinet had decided to declassify the cipher in a meeting after which it was “no more a secret document” and the case against Khan was politically motivated.
“This case has got nothing to do with the Official Secrets Act,” he added. “Therefore, we have urged the court to conduct a public hearing with full access to the media and lawyers.”
“The Official Secrets Act under which the case is registered against Imran Khan is only applicable to military personnel who reveal a state secret or anything which could compromise national security,” he added.
During Wednesday's hearing, the judge informed Khan’s legal team the Federal Investigation Agency recorded the arrest of the ex-premier on Aug. 15 and sought his physical remand in the case the very next day.
“As per the constitution, the authorities were bound to present Imran Khan in the relevant court within 24 hours of his arrest in the case,” Panjutha noted. “But it was not done and his legal team was not informed about his arrest in the cipher case.”
“This case cannot stand trial due to multiple legal loopholes and we believe Khan will be granted bail and subsequently acquitted in it.”
Khan's top aide, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, is also under arrest and being questioned in the cipher case.
